


I'll Drive You Home

by holbywolfe



Category: Holby City
Genre: ADORABLE AUNTIE BERNIE BECAUSE MY LITTLE GAY HEART CANNOT COPE, Driving, Elinor dies, F/F, Fletch has one line, Fluff, Light Angst, Sabbatical, coming home, fluffy angst?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-11
Updated: 2017-05-11
Packaged: 2018-10-30 13:18:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10877577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/holbywolfe/pseuds/holbywolfe
Summary: Jason has an idea of how to surprise Serena when she gets home, so Bernie teaching Jason to drive ensues!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this idea for a while, and in S18E34 Jason wanted to learn to drive, but Serena wouldn't let him (cue Serena/Bernie arguing) So I had the idea that Jason asks Bernie to teach him to drive whilst Serena's away, so he can drive her home from the airport.

“Auntie Bernie!”  
Bernie whips her head round upon hearing Jason shout her name across the ward. Giving him a weak smile she hands the patient file to Fletch and walks to Jason, gesturing for him to enter the office.  
“Everything alright, Jason?” she asks as she closes the door behind her and sits down next to Jason on the visitors chairs. He nods and smiles at her before he gets out his lunch and picks up the peanut butter sandwich Bernie had made him that morning.  
“I’d like you to teach me how to drive,” he says after a few bites, and looks up at the blonde.  
“T-to drive?” the blonde asks, astounded at the suggestion.  
“Yes, to drive. You know, a car, with four wheels and an engine?” Bernie just looks at him, eyes starting to well up. When she continues to just sit there staring at him he continues, “I’ve been saving up money since I moved in with Auntie Serena and I’ve got enough for a car now.” Bernie blinks back tears at the mention of Serena, _Serena_ , the woman she loves, and the woman she hasn’t seen in almost three months.  
“I, I’d love to Jason,” she finally manages to stutter out, looking up at him with a warm tearful smile. “I’ll…Uh… I’m happy to pay for some of it, so you still have some savings left,” she says because that’s what Serena would have done, and she wants to be the Auntie to Jason that Serena once was, _before_. Jason beams at her, and then leans over to give her a hug. She lets her tears fall then, for the first time in front of Jason. She normally holds them back until she can get home and into bed, into _Serena’s_ bed, but now she feels safe enough to let Jason see them, if anything just to let him know that it’s okay to be upset. If Jason feels her tears fall onto his shoulder, he doesn’t say anything, but she’s sure that he hugs her that little bit tighter.

They get home and Jason goes straight to his room to retrieve his laptop, then brings it back downstairs and sits next to Bernie on the couch. She places her glass of wine on the coffee table, and turns slightly in her seat so she can face him better.  
“I would just use Auntie Serena’s car, but it’s her car and I would feel wrong driving it. And we both know that my legs are too long for yours.” Bernie nods at this, then leans her hand on Jason’s shoulder and looks at his laptop screen.  
“Why don’t we start in Serena’s car, then you can get a feel for driving before you buy your own? That way you’ll be able to test drive when we go shopping,” she suggests, not wanting Jason to rush into a decision before he’s even been behind the wheel.  
“You’re sure she wouldn’t mind?”  
_“I’m quite sure I wouldn’t,”_ Bernie imagines Serena saying from behind them, then shakes the fantasy out of her head and brings herself back to Jason.  
“I’m quite sure she wouldn’t,” she says to him, and squeezes his shoulder gently, giving him a weak smile.  
“I miss her too, I know it’s not in the same way you do, but we have each other, and she will come back,” he says, looking Bernie in the eye, then reaching up to squeeze the hand still resting on his shoulder. Bernie lets out a shuddery breath then presses the heel of her free hand to her eyes to catch the first few tears. She hears a sniffle from Jason beside her and rests her head on his shoulder, her hand now moving around his back to bury herself in a much-needed hug.

Jason eventually begins to wiggle around, looking at his watch and announcing it’s time for him to email Serena. Bernie nods and lets him go upstairs with the instructions to _“Send her my love.”_

When she wakes in the morning she can already hear Jason pottering around downstairs, the smell of coffee clearing her head.  
“Morning!” she calls as she heads down the stairs, and Jason greets her with a smile and pushes the cup into her hands.  
“What’s got you so happy at this ungodly hour of,” she peeks across to look at his watch then finishes, “Seven twenty eight?”  
“I looked through Auntie Serena’s insurance drawer last night, and her car insurance plan covers a learner driver!” Bernie chuckles and smiles back at him.  
“Why didn’t you just ask her in the email?” Bernie asks, curious as to what her sort-of-nephew is plotting.  
“I want it to be a surprise, so I can drive her home from the airport when she gets back.” Bernie feels her chest tighten at Jason’s confidence that Serena _will_ come back. “Anyway I applied for my license online last night too, so it should come next week. I’m off to work now, enjoy your day off,” he says, and Bernie feels a sudden urge to pull him into a hug before he leaves. “And don’t worry, I won’t tell Mr Griffin about last night.” Bernie nods into his shoulder her thanks, then he pulls back and makes his way out the door to the bus stop round the corner.

 

~

Jason bounds up the stairs a week later, on Sunday morning, she hears him quickly come to a stop outside her door and then hears the gently tap of his knuckles on the wood.  
“Mhhm?” Bernie mumbles, still not completely awake and Jason opens the door and walks over to the side of the bed and stares down at Bernie.  
“Auntie Bernie, it’s eight forty-five, the postman’s come and my licence is here,” he says, plonking himself down onto a space on the bed. “I know you’ve got the day off, and I have too, so could we make a start today? I’ve read the drivers handbook and I’ve bought some ‘L’ plates,” Jason says, holding out the book and plates to show Bernie, along with his driver’s licence. Bernie looks down at the photo and smiles, then nods and pulls back the duvet and sits up against the headboard, patting the space beside her. Jason shuffles back and places his paraphernalia on the bedside table.  
“I wasn’t home to teach Cameron to drive, but I did help Charlotte quite a bit.” Jason nods in reply, and hands Bernie the drivers handbook.  
“There’s a test at the back,” he says, so Bernie flips to the last few pages to see that Jason has filled in the answers on sticky notes and stuck them on top of the corresponding questions.  
“Very good, Jason,” Bernie says as she nods, “Just let me shower and get dressed then we can make a start okay?” he nods as he clambers out of the bed and goes to make breakfast for them both.  
Bernie towel dries her hair into messy curls, _Serena’s favourite_ she thinks, then pushes the thought from her head and goes downstairs to eat breakfast.  
“Why don’t I show you some basics then we can go to a Morrisons carpark a bit later, once they’ve closed?” she says with a mouthful of porridge.  
“Good idea. I don’t mind, but Auntie Serena wouldn’t like you talking with your mouth full,” Jason says matter-of-factly, and Bernie chuckles and licks the remainder of porridge from her lips.

Bernie finds the keys to Serena’s car in the chest of draws next to the coat tree. _Here we go_ she thinks, then users Jason out the door and into the passenger seat of the car. Bernie explains what she does as she pulls out of the driveway and onto the street, then gets her nephew to tell her what she is doing as she drives to the nearest supermarket.  
When they switch seats and Jason puts his ‘L’ plates on, Bernie realises this might have been something Serena would have liked to do, she feels a bit remorseful for taking this opportunity away from her, then remembers Serena’s previous reluctance to engage in this task with Jason.

Jason is either a natural or has studied well, because Bernie hardly has to teach anything. They jolt a bit as they first get moving, but soon enough Jason is making clean turns and confident reverses. He asks if they can go onto the road, Bernie nods, makes sure to check the mirrors on both sides before giving him the go-ahead. He almost squeals in excitement when they breeze down a quiet street, a sound Bernie never expected to hear come out of him.

The months go by and Jason becomes more confident. He doesn’t squeal as much but giggles with Bernie when they glide down the motorway, swears with her at stupid drivers.

Just over two months in they start looking around for cars, Jason decides on a car like Bernie’s, with a convertible roof but more foot room and easier to get in and out of.

“Ellie’s favourite colour,” he says in explanation as she looks confused at his colour choice. Bernie nods, thinks if Serena were here she might burst out crying.  
Bernie pays for just over half, wants Jason to have a decent amount of money left over at the end of this. He is only on a porter’s wage, after all.

They drive back to the house with the roof down. Bernie doesn’t call it a home, doesn’t feel like it has been since Serena left.  
Her curls blowing everywhere as they speed down the motorway, thinks that if Serena were here she would have run her fingers through her hair when they stopped to tame it, thinks that if Serena were here her fingers would find other places to run through, on, in. Bernie pushes the thought out of her head and focuses on the feeling of her and Jason together, both waiting for the other member of their family to come back.


	2. Chapter 2

_‘Sunday, 23rd August. S x’_

Bernie reads and rereads the text, standing in the locker room at the end of her shift, only now having looked at her phone since she put it away that morning.

Sunday. 23rd. August. That was a matter of days away. Days. _In two days_ , she would see Serena. Would she? Is that what the text meant? With watery eyes, she decides that’s the only thing it could mean. And deliberates over a response to the first communication she’s had with her partner in several months.

 _‘Where from?’_ She decides on, hoping Serena will give her the city she is flying from. Is she even flying? Bernie will wait all day at the airport, going from gate to gate of those flights from where-ever-Serena-is. Luckily, she won’t have to, because as she is clambering into her car her phone pulses, indicating a text. It’s fair to say she’s never whipped her phone out of her pocket faster, and she blinks back tears yet again as she reads the text.

_‘Departs Toulouse 1555, my time’_

 

“If she’s flying British Airways, that’s a one hour and fifty-minute flight time-” Jason informs her when she shows him the texts. “-so, we should arrive at the airport between four and four twenty-five if we’re going to pick her up.” Bernie nods and opens the calendar on her phone, checking her shift rota for the next month. She stops on the weekend of August 23rd and her heart sinks.  
“I’ve got a shift on the Sunday,” she sighs, and looks up at Jason with bleary eyes; an increasingly regular occurrence since Serena left. Jason picks the phone out of her hands and taps a few times on the screen, before handing it back to Bernie.  
“No, you haven’t, not anymore,” he says, and Bernie looks down at her phone, noticing that the calendar event of her shift is no longer there.  
“Jason, you can’t just delete my shift, it doesn’t work like that, you have to clear it with Hanssen first, then you have to find cover, you know that Jason,” she says with a soft smile.  
“Well call Mr Hanssen then, I’m sure he’ll understand,” Jason says, and Bernie realises that he is right. _Of course,_ Henrick will give her the day off. She’s even sure he’d give her the whole month off if she asked nicely.  
“Good idea Jason,” Bernie says and squeezes Jason’s arm gently, before making her way up the stairs and into the bedroom.

“Henrick, hi,” she says when she hears the line connect.  
“Ms Wolfe, what can I do for you?” the hoarse voice of the beanpole Swede says.  
“Well, um, you see, Serena’scomingbackonSundayandcanIpleasehavethedayoff?”  
“Right, why don’t you try that again, with some breaths,” Henrick suggests, just as Jason walks in. Bernie has the phone next to her on speaker as she is lying in the middle of the bed, and she assumes that Jason has been waiting outside her door to hear the conversation. Jason sits himself down on the bed and picks up the phone, taking it off speaker and holding it up to his ear.  
“Henrick, it’s Jason. Auntie Serena is coming back on Sunday, and Auntie Bernie would like the day off, and maybe the few after that too?”  
“Of course, tell her that I’ll arrange for Mr Griffin to cover the shifts, and tell her not to worry about coming in tomorrow, I imagine she’s got some cleaning up to do before Serena comes home.”  
_“Comes home.”_ Bernie just manages to hear, and yet again she tears up. Because Serena is coming home, coming home to her, to Jason, to AAU, to the house that Bernie has struggled to make feel like a home since Serena left. Bernie lets the tears fall, and Jason hangs up the phone and moves to sit against the headboard, much like the day a few months ago when his driver’s licence arrived. Bernie rolls onto her side and continues to silently weep, and after a few moments feels Jason’s hand reach out and touch the back of her knuckles. She turns her hand over and claps Jason’s, holding tight.  
“It’s alright, she’ll be home soon,” Jason’s words elicit a fresh wave of tears from Bernie, and he gives her hand a squeeze in quiet reassurance.  
“Thank you, love,” she says after a while, her voice no more than a croaky whisper.  
“I’ll give you a minute, then can we go for a drive?” he says as he stands from the bed and makes his way to the door.  
“Of course, Jason.”

 

When Sunday comes, Jason drives them to the airport, Bernie pointing out the best ways to avoid the traffic. She resists the urge to look at her phone, as Jason tells her that the supervising fully-licenced adult in the car mustn’t be on their phone. Jason decided to bring his car; the convertible golf mini in purple. They pull into a carpark and Bernie is the first to clamber out. It is already four thirty, and they still have to get through security and find Serena’s gate. Bernie lifts her bag from the foot well and slings it over her shoulder. Jason shuts his door and walks round the car to meet Bernie, then reaches out and squeezes Bernie’s arm. Bernie thinks that Serena will be surprised how much Jason has changed; through grief of his cousin, and the temporary loss of his aunt, he has become more tactile, more considerate of peoples’ feelings. Jason pulls a pen out of his pocket and writes down their park number on the back of his hand. Bernie chuckles, because she knows that Jason will remember it, regardless of writing it down or not, she thinks maybe he does it for her benefit, something for Bernie to look at or focus on while she anxiously waits in the line for security.

When they finally get through Jason goes straight to an information screen, and scans until his eyes land upon Serena’s flight. It’s estimated to land in just over ten minutes, and he still needs to factor in the time it takes for everyone to get up and off the plane.  
“We have about twenty-five minutes, I think,” he says, and Bernie nods, feels the bleariness returning to her eyes.  
“I’ll just go to the loo, go get us a coffee?” she says, hands over a ten pound note and nods in the direction of the coffee shop.  
Jason is sitting on a bench outside the ladies when she comes out, he has a tray with a hot chocolate for himself and a coffee for her. She wipes her hands on the back of her thighs and picks up one of the coffees from the tray. He rolls his eyes and looks at her hands,  
“There are hand dryers for a reason, Auntie Bernie,” he says. She takes a sip from her coffee and hums, a habit she’d picked up from Serena.  
“We better get a move on,” she says, reaching a hand out for Jason’s and gives it a squeeze, then lets go and wraps both her hands around the paper cup.

It turns out the walk to the gate is longer than they anticipated, and they make it with just five minutes before Jason’s estimate of when people will start getting off. He goes ahead and finds a spot in clear view of the arrivals door, and Bernie goes and stands next to him, leaves half the coffee as a small welcome home present.

When the door finally opens and the flow of people start Bernie instinctively holds one hand to her wrist, feels her pulse quicken. Jason notices and moves to touch her hand, pulls it away from her wrist and holds it between his own.

Jason sees Serena first, and his grip tightens on Bernie’s hands. Bernie frantically looks around and spots her. _Serena_. Her hair is short, her roots silver and gleaming in the strip lights of the airport, her lips stretched into a smile she hasn’t seen in months, even in months before she went away. Bernie suddenly doesn’t know what to do, hasn’t thought past this moment. Jason makes the decision for her and take the coffee out of her hands, then gives her a nudge towards Serena. Before her own eyes tear up and she can’t see anymore, she gets a glimpse of Serena’s own bleary eyes. She feels the tears run down her checks then a familiar thumb come up to wipe them away, and the silent tears turn into violent sobs. Serena gathers her up into her arms, buries Bernie’s face in her own shoulder, feels the blonde’s body shake in her arms and her tears on her blouse. Her own tears mingle with the scent of Bernie’s perfume on her neck.  
Jason coughs and they finally find the willpower to pull away, and Serena runs her hand down Bernie’s arm and tangles their fingers together.  
“Hi,” Bernie whispers, her voice hoarse from weeks, _months_ , of crying herself to sleep.  
“Hello,” Serena says, voice equally strained.  
“I, uh, left you some coffee,” Bernie says with a chuckle while pointing to the cup Jason is holding, and Serena replies with a throaty laugh, one Bernie hasn’t heard in far too long. Serena plucks the cup from Jason and hands it to Bernie so both auntie and nephews’ hands are free. She wraps her arms around him, and he does the same.  
“Hello Auntie Serena, your plane was five minutes late,” he informs her, and she squeezes him tighter.  
“You and Bernie managed without me?” she asks, hears her favourite impersonation of a goose from behind her.  
“Of course we did, Auntie Serena,” Jason says, and Serena thinks that his voice sounds a bit teary, but doesn’t mention anything. She hears a sniffle from behind her and pulls out of the embrace to look at Bernie. Beautiful, amazing, Bernie, who she loves so very much, who has been a rock for her, who has stuck by her and stayed, _lived_ , in her house while she’s been away. She reaches for Bernie’s hand, and pulls on it slightly, and they walk out of Serena’s gate and towards luggage pickup. There are no dramatic declarations of love, because that’s not how they roll. There will be time for that later, on the night that they spend re-learning each other’s bodies, on the night that will become the early hours of the morning, on the night and morning that will leave them sore, swollen and sated.

They pick up Serena’s luggage and make their way to the carpark. Bernie smiles a knowing smile at Jason when he walks ahead to pay for the ticket, and Serena squeezes her hand and looks up at her, face muddled with confusion. Bernie just smirks at her and pulls her along to follow their nephew. Jason puts the ticket back in his pocket and leads them towards the car.

Serena stops dead when she sees Jason walk round to the driver’s side, when she sees Bernie stand in front of the passenger door. Her eyes well up all over again and Jason beams at both of his aunties.  
“Surprise!” Jason says, and Serena chokes back a sob, happy because Bernie has taught Jason to drive, something he has wanted to do for over a year, and sad because she’s missed out on so much of her _family_ while she’s been away.

“Come on Auntie Serena, I’ll drive you home.”


End file.
